In our copending Australian Patent Application No. AU-A33725/84 and New Zealand Patent Application No. 221095 we describe a mechanism for restraining and manipulating a sheep during an automated shearing process. The mechanism includes a device for restraining the head of the sheep in which the lower jaw of the sheep was clamped between a bar inserted in the mouth of the sheep and lower jaw engaging means having fingers which extended within the lower jaw bone of the sheep. The device is the subject of copending Austrailian Patent Application No. AU-A33725/84 and New Zealand Patent Application No. 221095. While this device provides a degree of restraint of the head of the animal, it has been found that the restraint is not sufficiently rigid in that the head of the sheep is allowed to tilt and rotate to a certain extent when the animal struggles. While it will be appreciated that complete restraint of the head of the sheep is not practicable, a more effective restraint than the restraint provided by this device is required.